Free Saving Forever - Part 5 (Saving Forever #5) by Lexy Timms Page A

reached out and hugged her. He kissed the top of her head. “I love you Charity Bennet. With all my heart. And I’m beyond excited you are having this baby. You are doing a fantastic job juggling everything you do.”
    She slipped her arms around his waist and buried her face into his shirt so he wouldn’t see the tears. When she went to sniff her runny nose and snorted instead, she giggled. “Sorry. That slipped.”
    “Better your nose than your bottom.”
    Charity’s head popped up and she burst out laughing. “Where do you come up with this stuff?”
    Elijah grinned. “My father always had a million and one phrases for whenever something bad – extraordinary happened. Guess I’m turning into him.”
    Charity stepped back and untangled her arms from around his waist. “Let me go change. I’ll be ready to go in five minutes.” She headed for their room but stopped halfway there before she spun around and raced back him. “I love you, Mister Elijah Bennet.” She pressed her hands over her growing belly and made a heart shape over the top of the small bump. She slipped her hand into his and tugged his arm gently towards the hallway. “I was thinking about this the other day.”
    “Thinking about what?” Elijah allowed her to lead him.
    “If my dad and your mom like each other. What if they, say, got married? Where would they live? He’s not going to leave the hospital and your mom doesn’t seem the moving kind.”
    “She wants to move out of the big house.”
    “Yeah, but would she move here to America?” Charity couldn’t picture it.
    “Maybe they’ll be snowbirds.”
    “Snowbirds?”
    “Spend six months here and the other half of the year in New Zealand.” Elijah chuckled and then started laughing harder.
    “What’s so funny?”
    “Imagine they married? Your dad would be my step-father and my father-in-law. What would that make him? My step-dad-in-law?”
    Charity sniggered. “Then that would make you my half-brother. You’d be my half-brother husband.”
    “That’s gotta be illegal somewhere.”
    “How about we just let them live together in sin?” Charity giggled. “My dad’s probably just in it for the sex.”
    Elijah playfully pushed her away and nodded toward the bedroom a few feet away. “That’s my mother you are talking about! Go get dressed young lady, and think about what you are saying!”
    Charity hurried to the room, tossing a comment back at him over her shoulder. “If I recall on our honeymoon, your mom gave my father a heart attack. And you said they were messing around. You started it.”
    “You’re just like your father, never forget anything, do you?”
    Charity’s laughter echoed from the bedroom and down the hall as she changed. “You’re the one who married me and then knocked me up!” She loved how he could turn her horribly, bad mood into fun. Yeah, I’m going to keep him. Forever.
     

Chapter 8
     
    “I’m glad to hear your flight went well.” Charity sat across from her mother-in-law and her father. She had eaten way too much food, but it had all tasted so good. They all had. Elijah had outdone himself with the barbecue and by the time they had arrived back at her dad’s place, everyone had been hungry. The aroma of barbecue and meat cooking had waffled through the sliding door and teased everyone till all they could talk about was food.
    Now everyone had eaten and were relaxing comfortably around the dinner table. Elijah got up to pour more wine into their glasses, purposely skipping over Charity’s still full glass.
    “Charity, you haven’t even touched your wine.” Her father pointed at the glass. “I picked up your favorite.”
    She stood and picked up her and Elijah’s dishes to clear away. “I think I’ll just have a tea.” She headed to the kitchen and set the plates in the dishwasher and switched the kettle on. She heard her father tell Margaret about how she was now back at med-school finishing up her residence. He laughed when